


Do another detour

by sandyk



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Endgame fix it, F/M, Frozen 2 (2019) Spoilers, Pepperony - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24531118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: Tony lives and recovers, Pepper is the real hero, and Morgan anticipates being done with learning in a year or two.
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 12
Kudos: 35
Collections: Fandom 5K 2020





	Do another detour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [arysteia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysteia/gifts).



> not mine, no profit garnered. Thank you A!! And also mosca for the planning conversation. Title from Fiona Apple's a mistake.

2\. 

After Tony didn't die from the jewels of power, he woke up in a hospital like place. The genius who is also a girl from Wakanda leaned over him and said, "Hello. You're doing much better. This is Wakanda, this is my lab and, frankly, it's amazing, I've been gone five years and they've made improvements. So I had to rush around and get caught up."

"You didn't think they were smart enough to improve on your stuff," Tony said. His voice was pure gravel. "Making a joke," he said. 

"I know," she said, smiling. "Honestly? I knew they were smart, I did, I didn't really believe how much they would improve. You should see the lab." 

He looked down and across his bed. His hand was gone. Shuri said, "I'm sorry, we couldn't save your hand. But together we can make the new one." 

"That sounds fun, actually," Tony said. 

Then he was worried about everyone else, and he heard that he was the only one seriously injured. Carol and Thor and Pepper and Rhodey and the king had minor scarring. Cap and Wanda and Pete had more scarring, but nothing else. It was nice to hear. He said, "Morgan? Who's watching Morgan?"

He'd passed out before he could ask Shuri, but it was the first thing he said to Pepper. He said, "I love you, really glad we all made it out alive, but also Morgan?"

She smiled and shook her head. It was adorable. All these years he still genuinely liked her smile. She said, "With CeCe. The nanny. You remember CeCe, right?"

"I wasn't sure," Tony said. "Lots of things happening out there."

"Bruce has been staying at the house, too," Pepper said. "He says it's easier to recover there."

"Brought everyone back," Tony said, closing his eyes. 

"I know," Pepper said. "He did it very well, too. No one died from coming back. People flying came back on the ground, people who disappeared from a place that's different now, also alive and not encased in a wall."

"He put that super genius mind to work," Tony said. "Seven PhDs finally useful. Also, it's not like a wish. You don't have to say a sentence and parse out all the variables. You're visualizing, it's more than one dimension."

"You visualized," Pepper said, fondly. He knew it was fond because Pepper had that small smile that she used when she was looking at him. He had his very own Pepper smile, it felt like an accomplishment. Maybe more than a Nobel prize. 

"But you're okay and I'm alive, so we're good. We'll go and get Morgan when we get out of here," Tony said.

"You are going to be here for weeks, Tony," Pepper said. "But when I get out, I'll get her and bring her to you."

"Good, that's good," Tony said. "Can't wait to see her." 

"She wants to see you," Pepper said. "I was on the phone with her last night."

"She's not too scared, right?" He never wanted that. It was inevitable, life was fear and worry, but he really wanted to put that off for Morgan.

"She's fine," Pepper said. 

He passed out and they had to continue the conversation the next day. That day he saw Pepper and Peter and Bruce and Steve. Steve explained he'd taken all the stones back to whence they came. "Good work," Tony said. "That's great."

4.

Now, here and now, Peter's gone home now that May's found one. Tony now sees Peter the normal amount of time for an adult man mentoring a teenager: once or twice a month. They talk on the phone every day. Email constantly. Which is normal enough. The kid's family. Tony's family. 

On an average day in his recovery, Tony sleeps badly. He wakes up for real at six a.m., and Pepper wakes up around the same time. They have thirty minutes to talk and maybe other non-aerobic activities before they have to get up or the tiny genius wakes them up. There's breakfast which Tony sometimes makes. Pepper goes to her office or she goes to New York and gets back to work using Stark Industries to save the entire world, the hard day to day that superheroes don't do. "You're the real hero," Tony says to her. 

"Yes, I am," she says. 

He hangs out with his favorite person in the world for an hour or two, even though Morgan often insists on watching Frozen 2 way more than can be healthy. Morgan goes off to her nanny and tutors, Tony has the first of three hours of physical therapy in his garage. But after an hour of that, he gets to tinker alone. 

He's working on an apartment building for all his physical therapists and nannies and tutors so they don't have to drive all the way out to the lake house but can live on the edge of Tony's property. Which is about halfway to the nearest town. Tony has this idea of making a house that uses space efficiently, completely sustainable. Once he has that part fixed, maybe Pepper can use it for her efforts to rehouse half the population. 

Tony feels like he can fix that problem, or maybe one of the hundred of thousands of people who study this stuff for five years in college and sit for exams will figure it out. Money's on someone figuring it out, the sooner the better. Like most things, Tony thinks there will be multiple solutions that take into account local conditions and multiple kinds of houses side by side. 

He plays with Pepper's suit. He makes updates to Peter's suit. He sends ideas to Wilson and even a few emails he knows will be ignored to Pym. He spends real time on Rhodey's suit because he's still using it and he needs it more than Peter needs his suit. He can still keep people safe, just with his brain. 

He has lunch with Pepper and Morgan if Pepper's at home. Morgan takes a nap and Tony takes a nap in solidarity with her. When Morgan wakes up she has more schooling, and Tony has two hours of physical therapy. He used to be in great shape. Great shape for his age and number of injuries. Shuri and Dr. Cho are doing amazing work, but Tony's still fifty-three, missing a hand, with a bad heart and a lot of scars. That's why he does pilates, yoga, barre work, weight lifting, whatever else the quartet working on him comes up with. 

He tinkers, he talks to Peter, he has conversations with Bruce and Rhodey and sometimes even Steve. He has dinner. He and Pepper take care of Morgan and put her to bed. Sometimes he does a little barre work with Pepper, minus the bar, the regimented steps. It's an overly complicated way to say they have sex. 

Sometimes he's exhausted and he goes to bed early. 

Except for the physical therapy and the talking to Peter, it's not that different from what he did back when he had two hands, after the snap. 

B.

The day would start a little earlier, and there would be no time between the adults waking up and Morgan demanding attention. Tony always made breakfast because he'd promised Pepper when she was in labor. Pepper went off to work, helping to put the world back together. Usually she just went to her office/converted shed in the backyard. Sometimes she went to the city. Tony not only tinkered, he gardened and took care of the animals. 

Bruce visited all the time, maybe a little more after his successful Hulk integration. "I feel like I deserve a little credit for this," Tony said. "Your whole thing."

"No," Bruce said. 

"I have always been very supportive of your Hulk side, you not regarding your Hulkness as an evil," Tony said. "I bet I said some great things that were running through your head. Reverberating. Accumulated wisdom."

"Nope," Bruce said. 

"Please don't give all the credit to Tall, Blonde and Hammered, that's just cruel," Tony said. 

"Actually, it was more Angry Girl. Valkyrie. She's great, you'd love her," Bruce said. 

"Don't know when I'll be in Norway next," Tony said. "I got a girl, I got two, actually."

"Maybe they'd like a change of weather," Bruce said. 

Tony looked away and started chopping things for lunch. He said, "You look really good, though."

Bruce said, "Have you heard from Nat, about the thing?"

"I get her emails, too. Talk to her on the phone even. I made some suggestions," Tony said. "Anything to keep that show away from me and mine. Speaking of --"

Pepper and Morgan walked in from the back. Morgan squealed and tried to climb Bruce, like always. Pepper hugged Bruce and joined Tony in the kitchen. "I'm so glad to see you," she said to Bruce. 

"You and Morgan are the reason I come here," Bruce said. 

Bruce and Pepper conferred a lot about rebuilding the world, food supply issues, transportation issues. Clean up alone was taking years and years. 

Bruce and Pepper were also out in the world, they interacted with people and did things. They had social media. Sometimes Pepper went to galas, even. Tony skipped all of that. He has his kid and his wife and friends who were still alive. 

A majority of the time, it was just the three of them. At the end of the day and the beginning of the day, Morgan was amazing, Pepper was incredible and he was lucky enough to have this time with them. 

1\. 

On the day, Tony had been extremely prepared to die. It was a curse of sorts to see so many steps ahead but Tony was a genius, it was his idle time habit. His mind was almost never quiet, almost never not working as fast as it could. The almost in almost never was time with Pepper, Rhodes, and Happy. And then Peter and then Morgan. 

He'd spent a lot of time thinking about this ending and what would happen. Things had gotten complicated since he was engaged to Pepper, taking on mentorship duties, and now he was married and had Morgan. If everyone was back, and everyone was safe, he could do the time and sacrifice. His life had not been wasted. 

He wasn't reconciled to it, he didn't want it. He had a really hot wife who was his superior in nearly every respect. He had an amazing miracle of a daughter. He was pretty fond of the house by the lake and all the work he'd put into that garden. 

But in the battle, he'd seen Peter, Peter was fine, everyone was back. So. 

He looked at Strange, thought Thank God, the last time for that, and took the goddamn universe ending stones. He said his witty quip and died. 

Except he opened his eyes and he had eyes to open and he was back at that moment. He thought, Come on God, last time for this time, right? He took the stupid glowy stones. All over again, agony. 

But it hurt less out of nowhere. The damn kid was right there grabbing his wrist with a firm grip. Tony had a second to think No no only me no one else dies. And the agony was less and less in a split second so Tony said his witty quip and snapped to stop Thanos. Bruce brought everyone back and Tony stopped the battle. And passed out. Not dead. 

3.

He is not dead. He is here in the present. 

Tony is a fucking snob. But it's a demonstrable fact that while the difference between the sixty dollar version of a thing and the one hundred dollar version thing is not much, but there is a definitive difference between the five dollar version of a thing and the six hundred dollar version of a thing. 

Peter will eat anything and why didn't the spider bite upgrade his taste buds? The kid is literally eating bottom of the barrel cheap cheese like it's delicious. Tony's tried, he tries to expose him to the finer things but it makes no impact. The kid bought it, no way Tony would allow that cheese substitute into his kitchen. 

Peter has scars up and down his hand and wrist and forearm. Everything's healed, everything works, he's way ahead of Tony in that respect. But even Peter can't heal these scars. 

There are a surprising number of people with scars like that. Sometimes, as Tony sits on his couch, shivering like an old man in his thirty layers of the finest wool, Tony remembers that he wants to ask about the rewind he knows happened. Who did that? But no one else admits to remembering. The point is, that day on the field, eight people touched Tony or someone touching Tony while he snapped and no one died from it, except the ones Tony envisioned turning to dust. 

King T'Challa, Cap, Thor, Peter, Carol, Rhodey, Wanda, and Pepper. 

Tony still got the worst of it. He's missing his hand and his scars are much uglier than Peter's, but he's alive. He's alive and he's so fucking cold on his couch with his daughter at his feet playing with building blocks. Peter is eating a sandwich that must taste awful in the other chair and Pepper is making noise cleaning something in the kitchen behind Tony. 

Pepper has scars, too, she reached for him but she grabbed his shoulder on the side that didn't have the stones. She has tiny pink scars like snakes winding from her hand all the way to her shoulder. She took less than a week to recover. Most of the time, she's a-okay. That's a good outcome to Tony. He'd prefer the one where she had no scars, but he'll take this version where she's basically fine. 

She sits next to him, warm and in many less layers. She cuddles next to him. He falls asleep before nine p.m. like a much older man would. 

When he wakes up, it's just Petey, over in the other chair, idly flipping through channels. "Hey, go back to sleep," he says, like he's talking to his grandfather and not a much loved father figure who is not that old. 

"Because it's so good for me to sleep at this angle on this couch."

"I don't think it's that bad," Peter says. "Besides, I was gonna take you upstairs at midnight."

"Carry me like a blushing bride up the stairs? Embarrassing," Tony says.

"Blushing bride?" The kid grins. "You prefer the fireman's carry? I can do that, too."

"I can walk," Tony says. "Just give me a few minutes. What are we even watching?"

"I think it's a movie? I haven't seen it."

"Yeah, you missed it," Tony says. "This one isn't worth the time. Even three Academy Award nominees and winners can't save that shit script."

"What's it about?" Peter scratches his head and Tony can see the scars ruining his baby skin.

"What are you going to tell people about that? I assume you haven't changed your mind about the secret identity," Tony says. 

"Oh, um." Peter looks at his hand and then crosses his arms over his chest, hiding it away. That should work at school and the rest of his life, Tony thinks. Peter says, "Well, I was just gonna say it was a car accident. That usually works, right?"

"Sure," Tony says. "It'll be fine." He hopes he has a reassuring tone. He's trying very hard. "This movie seriously sucks, let's both go upstairs."

"I'll stand right behind you with a supportive hand out, just in case," Peter says, laughing. 

5.

He's recovered, now. He has physical therapy every day and today he is doing pilates on a mat. They already did an hour on the damn reformer. 

His physical therapist says, "You're doing well, good core --"

"I used to fly in this tin can, you'd be amazed at the workout," Tony says. 

"Yes, I'm aware. Whatever foundation you had was damaged by that power source that burnt you from the inside out," Momo says. It's not his name but Tony likes Momo better. 

"Multiple power sources that could level the universe," Tony says. "Nothing special."

"Nothing special then," Momo says. "More repetitions."

"More repetitions," Tony says. Then Morgan comes running in and lays down next to him. 

She says, "More repeats."

"Please don't do this along with me, it makes me feel bad," Tony says. "Little baby one, be like your mom and stand over me, making fun of me."

Morgan stands up and crosses her arms, grinning at him. 

He's sweating and shaking when Momo decides he's done. Tony just lays there for a minute, maybe two. 

Morgan laughs and dances away to Pepper. He smiles, and it's painful to sit up, but he does it anyway. 

Bruce has a burnt and scarred arm. He can still use it, mostly. He still spends more time with Pepper than Tony. "Today Pepper figured out a very big problem in Des Moines."

"Iowa or Washington state?" Tony smiles at Bruce and Pepper. He is sufficiently recovered to make dinner every night, so he does. 

"Iowa," Pepper says. "Is there a Des Moines in Washington? Of course there is, you wouldn't joke unless you knew for sure. I didn't solve the problem, I suggested a partial solution."

"Which will totally work," Bruce says. 

"We'll see what the Planning Commission has to say," Pepper says. 

"She's so modest and humble," Tony says. 

"Someone in the house should be," Pepper says. 

"Oh, and witty! So witty." Tony kisses her cheek. 

Morgan comes in with a map she's drawn. It's a fairy kingdom, or queendom as she calls it. She explains each part in detail to Pepper and Tony. It's brilliant, naturally. Tony, Bruce and Pepper are all paying very strict attention. Morgan commands a room, naturally. That's her mother in her. It didn't come naturally to Tony until he was in his twenties and very drunk. 

By dinner time they've gotten a notice, there's an emergency. A superhero emergency. Bruce says, "I've got to go."

"Wish I could go," Tony says. "Pepper?"

She considers. She says, "It's a very nice suit."

"Best I've ever built," Tony says. "Go, go, I've got our girl, we can wait." He hopes he sounds confident. He really wants to put on the suit. But he's not ready. He probably won't ever be ready. He'll never be recovered enough. But Pepper is fine. She's good. 

He puts on an earpiece so he can hear if Pepper needs him or any help. He puts Morgan on the couch next to him and they watch Frozen 2 again. Parts of this film are really fucking dark. 

Pepper gives him updates. She tells him Peter is there and Cap and Hulk. He says, "Where's Wanda? Why are you the only lady there?"

She says, "Shush." 

The bad guy is two bad guys, both enhanced and armed to the teeth. Apparently, they also have a lot of teeth. More than they should. Tony puts on his glasses to see the visual because a lot of teeth is a weird description. "Crap," Tony says. These guys have three rows of teeth. Huge mouths and so many teeth. Normal human faces until you get to the jaw and mouth and they're both so big to fit all the teeth. "Don't get close to those teeth, tell Peter that." 

Pepper says, "He understands."

Teeth Twins put up a very big fight. They're also up against serious heavy hitters and somehow Pepper is even in charge. That's smart. It's over quickly. 

No one's even injured. He hugs Morgan and watches Elsa save Arendelle. "Yay," Morgan says. "I love this part."

"Me, too," Tony says. He hugs her closer. 

Pepper comes home and goes straight to the shower. Then she comes downstairs and sweeps up Morgan. "Hello, baby."

"Hello, Mommy. Elsa saved Arendelle again. Even though I've watched it so many times, I still get worried every time the water comes," Morgan says. "Daddy does, too. He was so scared."

"Not by the movie, little one," Tony says. Pepper smiles at him. One of her fond Tony smiles.

Pepper says, ""Now you know what it feels like."

"Hey, I always knew. I have been and always shall be scared for you."

"You nerd," Pepper says. She does a perfect Vulcan salute. 

"You nerd too," Tony says. 

6.

It takes months and months before Tony's physical therapists see him only every other week. He can run or jog and he gets to bring in his mixed martial arts trainer. The guy doesn't mind that Morgan shows up and imitates all their moves even though it puts Tony in a not fight-y mood. She's so adorable with her face screwed up as she tries to kick in the air. "She's gonna kick your ass," his trainer says. "Give it a year or two."

"I give it a few months, she's a fast learner," Tony says. 

A.

Back in the back days, Tony had a place in Manhattan, he had multiple places in Manhattan, no more Tower, no more Avengers. He stayed in his place in Manhattan and Rhodey came over and the kid came over. He had Pepper. He missed Bruce, boy, he missed Bruce. He missed the team. But he had the most important person in his life. He had Pepper. 

He would meet with the kid, hang out with Happy, hang out with Rhodey and go home to Pepper. Wake up to Pepper. It was a pretty damn good life. Except for all the looming doom and horror that always happens. But that was pretty minor since he was genuinely really fucking happy. 

He likes that Morgan was conceived then. Pepper was pregnant when she said she wasn't because it was so soon. But that life, that little wriggly life born when they were both happy, she was already there. If Morgan was a miracle, Tony was convinced she was one Pepper created through sheer will cause Tony really sucked at good things. 

6.

He meanders around the lake thinking very abstract, completely pointless thoughts. Nothing useful in any of it. It's often important to be useful. 

No matter how useful you've been in the past. At this point, it's the fifteenth second chance in his life, and he keeps needing to be useful. Maybe he could relax just this once. But then there's Morgan and Pepper and that's the highest caliber of usefulness. 

He's mostly recovered. As much he'll probably get. The little ruler of her queendom has tutors instead of school, but they take her to a number of group activities where she can meet other tiny people and learn how to make friends. Find her Rhodey and Bruce or at least someone to invite to occasional tea time. Maybe they could all play Uno together. Or whatever the latest friendly animal pals game is on the various gaming platforms. Pepper had bought an interest in one of them, the kids could play that one. 

Morgan has Tuesday dance class, because Tony had had dance class and loved it until he was sent away to boarding school. Tony's mother would drive him instead of Jarvis, and she would sit with the other mothers and beam at him. It was a good memory. Thursday is the crafting group which is technically Mommy and Me, but Pepper has no interest in crafting. So Daddy and Me crafting group at the local yarn store. On the weekend she plays soccer which Pepper did have an interest in, so she takes that one.

Pepper wears her suit about once a month now. She's just that good at it. Steve even comes by sometimes to collaborate or plan things. Whatever those two talk about in the study. Tony assumes it's him, they're talking about him. Comparing notes on how great Tony is. Or probably complaining about him, they can do that one, too. 

He knows they're talking about future bad guys, bad guys they're expecting. New superheroes showing up, possible superheroes who might just be wack jobs, supervillains, all the usual. Tony does more of the work of looking for all these people, but he just relays the info to Pep and Steve. He tries nowadays not to take too much on in terms of carrying the weight of the world. He'll just take on whatever Morgan needs or Pepper. 

Tony also tries not to sit too much. It's bad for him. He has a standing desk, and DUM E comes poking at him if he tries to sit for too long. When Bruce putters around with him, Bruce has his own chair that Tony made for him. Bruce can sit as long as he wants. Fucking Hulk power and probable ten times the lifespan of a normal man. Peter just hops around like it's nothing. Tony was never that young. With super powers. 

In the morning, Morgan puts nail polish on Tony's nails. She is very precise for someone under seven and while she doesn't do any work on his cuticles, he still looks good in iron man red. "We don't match," Tony says. 

Morgan's nails are neon green. She says, "I match Bruce."

"Did you do his nails?"

"No, duh, he doesn't need nail polish, his nails are already that color," Morgan says. "Come on, Daddy."

"Yeah, I'm not on the ball this morning. But luckily now I can look down at my hand and be like, red is for red alert," Tony says. He doesn't let Morgan paint his nails on the fake hand. Shuri worked wonders with a little help from Tony, so he can wiggle his fake fingers and use it almost in every way as his real hand. He can't store an entire defensive suit in his real hand, either, but everything has its pros and cons. 

"Your tutors are here, young miss," he says. "You do have an awful lot to learn still."

"I'll probably be done next year," she says, looking at him seriously. 

"Good, that's a plan for sure." Tony stands up and pats her head. "You better get to work on that."

He waits until she puts away her supplies and runs to her tutors. Then he goes to his lab to work on Pepper's latest list of things she needs in her suit. She makes a lot of suggestions. Tony's first instinct is to always arm to the teeth and as much defense as possible. Pepper is more mission oriented. So he tinkers and has FRIDAY run the specs. 

He's working on a shared kind of drive with Shuri but it's more than just a drive, because Shuri is involved. He loves her inherent need to improve and add even more bells and whistles. Sometimes he even impresses her which is a very good feeling for an old guy. 

Making things, making things, he does like making things. He even hums a lot as he doesn't sit in the garage. 

He eats lunch with Pepper and Morgan. He has regained enough health he could stay up all night and never leave his lab once or twice a week but it's awfully boring without Pepper and Morgan. Also all his health would be gone pretty quick because he's old and battered. 

Pepper makes lunch for once and Tony does not make jokes about women in the kitchen. No bad example for Morgan. Not even in hilarious ribbing that's funny because of satire. Which is a concept he's only slightly explained to the littlest precious moonbeam in the house. Also, Pepper didn't make sandwiches so his joke would be less fun. 

They have a quick and easy coconut curry. Morgan licks her finger and presses down on the inside of the bowl and then sucks the remaining sauce off her finger. "Gross," Pepper says. "Find another way to do that."

"Not by straight up lifting the bowl and licking it," Tony says, smiling at Morgan. 

She mimes doing just that and then just laughs and sits back. "Mommy, did you see Daddy's nails?"

"They look lovely," Pepper says. 

In the afternoon, he and Pepper walk around the lake together. She says, "I don't want to jinx anything, but we have a pretty nice life."

Tony looks at her aghast. "Well, the next alien invasion is on you."

"I accept responsibility for that one," she says. "But this is good."

"We've had lots of good times," Tony says. "Remember, between the Expo and the invasion of New York. After we got back together before the Space Donut. After Morgan was born before the last battle. Now. Lots of good times." He looks at her with a smile. "I think it's even more than the bad times. We're ahead now." He claps his hand over his mouth. "Now I'm the one jinxing."

"You don't believe in fate," Pepper says. 

"Not in the slightest," Tony says. 

"So who did the rewind? On the battlefield." She watches the ripples on the lake. Tony spent a solid year cleaning up that lake and making sure the water was healthy and the fish were healthy and he had a way to make sure the water coming to the lake didn't fuck up all his work.

"I don't know who did the rewind," Tony says. "No one even remembers it."

"I remember it," she says. "I do now. I was meditating and it just came to me."

"So it was you," he says. 

"I think," Pepper says. "I think I did. You died. I told you to let go and my hand fell on those fucking stones. Maybe not all of them? I thought one more chance, I visualized it." She laughs, just a little. "At least that's what came to me when I was meditating."

"You're always right there, saving my life. It's almost irritating," Tony says. He stops right in front of her and kisses her. "Aren't you wonderful?"

"I really am," she says. "You're very lucky. Or it's fate."

"Neither," Tony says. "We earned this, lady."


End file.
